"This article examines the delays experienced in the Family Courts in New York City. As this article will demonstrate, the disruptions in processing cases in New York result in cases languishing on the docket for many years. Even more shocking, cases routinely take several years to complete the appellate process. Some of the resulting harm to children is obvious; some of the harm, as we will explain below, is less obvious, but equally damaging. No one, we suspect, would defend these delays as justified. Yet they have become such a familiar part of the child welfare landscape that they are routinely accepted.

We believe it is imperative for the state to demonstrate its commitment to children's well-being by, at a minimum, ensuring that court matters are not postponed merely because of inadequate resources or bureaucratic failure to administer resources effectively. We further believe that this demonstration should precede any serious calls for accelerating the time for termination of parental rights. Until the state [*548] proves itself willing to invest in children and their families, it ought not be authorized to destroy familial ties by involuntarily terminating parental rights." Martin Guggenheim & Christine Gottlieb, Justice Denied: Delays in Resolving Child Protection Cases in New York, 12 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 546, 546 (2005). Link to Article (last visited 3-26-06 NVS)